My neighbour gave me a verbal bashing earlier, there lawn has pooled ground water where it meets my boundary. I too have experienced ground water on my garden after heavy showers and persistent rain. The soil is like clay and so the drainage is not the best.

Before Autumn last year I covered my garden with stone chippings to create a maintenance free garden. My neighbour thinks the ground water is surface water runoff from my garden, implied as a result of me changing my garden from lawn to stone chippings. They say I am responsible for ruining there lawn and killing there trees.

My neighbours land is 3 to 6 inches lower where it meets my boundary. The land is level and we are not on a slope. My Neighbour is asking if I have changed the lay of the land and what materials I have used. I did not change the lay of the land and I used a weed control and landscape fabric fit for the purpose of stone chippings. It allows water, air and nutrients to penetrate.

I cant help but feel my neighbour is trying to build a case against me. Can they actually do anything?

Neighbour139 wrote:My neighbour gave me a verbal bashing earlier, there lawn has pooled ground water where it meets my boundary. I too have experienced ground water on my garden after heavy showers and persistent rain. The soil is like clay and so the drainage is not the best.

In this context, groundwater and surface water are two separate entities, groundwater is anything that is natural and stays natural, once it becomes diverted or channeled in any way it is no longer groundwater. Surface water is anything that falls onto impermeable surfaces such as roofs, drives and patios and must be dealt with within your own land into properly constructed drains.

I did not change the lay of the land and I used a weed control and landscape fabric fit for the purpose of stone chippings. It allows water, air and nutrients to penetrate.

There are many different landscape fabrics, ones with a glossy finish and close weave aren't very good, those with a matt finish and more open weave are better. Landscape fabrics also need a depth of water to drive through the fabric, those with an inch or two above them will just act like a sheet of polythene unless there are effective upstands at the edges.

Mac, I completed the work myself. As for my experience, I completed 3 similar jobs in the past and have never experienced this problem with any of my previous work.

Ukmicky, I used a woven weed control fabric that's porous.

Arbor lad, thanks for your feedback, can you recommend a fabric?Can surface run off be caused by a permeable landscape fabric?I am considering putting down a couple widths of new fabric to test / rule out if this is causing this problem.

I understood that water rises evenly beneath the soil and pools at the lowest surface level which is where my neighbour is experiencing this problem, coincidently at my boundary. My neighbour had some 6ft trees removed along the boundary with the roots and then laid to lawn to patch up. Could this be causing there problem?

It doesn't sound like the work you've done has had any significant negative effects. I'd suggest all over the country there is water standing where it doesn't normally stand. It is in many cases simply a result of the record rainfall intensity we have experienced.

Tell your neighbour you have used permeable membrane which allows water to percolate, and the standing water he is experiencing is you believe is simply due to the excessive rainfall.His only option is an expensive risky legal challenge....seems unlikely.

Have you walked around the locality to see if your neighbour is the only one experiencing this problem? This would appear unlikely. The amount of rain lately has been excessive and even some roads are almost covered in water. You will probably find several properties suffering the same problem as the neighbour.

Neighbour139 wrote:Arbor lad, thanks for your feedback, can you recommend a fabric?

Terram, but the lighter grade suitable for gardens, not the heavier one best suited to construction sites. The woven ones seem to have the avowed intention of unravelling and fraying as soon as a knife or scissors go near it

Can surface run off be caused by a permeable landscape fabric?

Yes, water will take the path of least resistance, especially if it is laid flat with no upstands or raised edges.

I am considering putting down a couple widths of new fabric to test / rule out if this is causing this problem.

Good idea, especially if you've got an off-cut of the existing to test as well.

My neighbour had some 6ft trees removed along the boundary with the roots and then laid to lawn to patch up. Could this be causing there problem?

It would depend on how, and how well this was done. If they were hand dug without keeping topsoil and clay separate and then piling the whole mix back in the hole, this could cause problems.

[quote="stufe35"] I'd suggest all over the country there is water standing where it doesn't normally stand. It is in many cases simply a result of the record rainfall intensity we have experienced.[/quote]

Presumably in any area that forms puddles after heavy rain, filling in some of the puddles with gravel must necessarily cause the displaced water to seek out other puddles?

is that a legitimate cause for complaint from a lower-lying more puddle-prone neighbour?

I suspect that the LA is only interested in your water reaching the road. I think they can only control your surface water. A council official came to complain about my surface water. He was upset to find it was a new spring, which I guestimated at about 100 gallons per hour. He went away.